


Miraculous Shanghai

by Aka_Mel



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: 1920s, Alternative Universe - 1920s Shanghai, F/M, Shanghai - Freeform, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-23
Packaged: 2018-05-18 04:19:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5897962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aka_Mel/pseuds/Aka_Mel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ming-Na has just become the next Ladybug to protect the world from an all new Hawkmoth centered in Shanghai during the 1920s. She's stubborn and willful but as Ladybug she is able to turn those qualities into strength to defeat akumas sent to destroy the only home she's ever known. She loves being Ladybug, but maybe not as much as the newcomer from France, a boy named Jean Sarcelle, who has a catty secret of his own.</p>
<p>An Alternative Miraculous Ladybug Universe set to the bustling jazz era of 1920s Shanghai. One of Marinette's predecessors, if you might.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The streets of Shanghai were congested, even in the darkest of nights, but the skies were open and clear despite the smoke and fog. She felt free up here. She felt _miraculous_.

 

"Hup!"

 

Ladybug jumped from one edge of a rooftop to the next. Her feet left the familiar undulated surface and kicked off the edge of a point reaching out towards the sky. The Tea House was behind her as she shot off her yoyo. She swung through the air, landing on a Western style hotel. Ladybug appreciated the wonders from the West and the sense of order and progress foreigners have brought through ventures like her Father's trading warehouses. (Of course, this included chocolate!) Yet, she missed dearly the brightness and busywork in Chinese details. That was why she felt at home in a _qipao_. _“Tikki!”_ she thought. _“You're a brilliant costume designer!”_

 

Her dress as Ladybug was not too dissimilar from her own _qipao_ , a Chinese dress simplified for the modern girl, that she wore as Li Ming-Na, simple. Perfect for the clumsy daughter of the famous trader, Li Wei-Yu. Although, as Ladybug her slit was much higher for flexibility but the men styled trousers kept her modesty intact. She was unused to such bright colors in my everyday life. She stuck out like a sore thumb even in the bright, Shanghai nights, but as Ladybug she reveled in the attention.

 

_“Now who was I meant to save tonight?”_

 

Ladybug saw the commotion from miles out. Smoke rose near the Shanghai slums. Yet, the citizens merely cried and pointed in another direction. The destruction left behind by the akuma was headed towards the famous Shanghai Club. They wouldn't let girls enter, and even if she wasn't a girl she was too young to enter anyway. You would think seventeen was old enough. _“Although, as Ladybug, I’m sure the managers wouldn't mind when something is terrorizing the city and headed straight towards them,”_ she thought, bemused.

 

Ladybug rushed from one rooftop to the next, following the destruction she found, and rushing onwards ever faster. Her need to stop this maniac from hurting the people of Shanghai grew in an unsettled way in her chest. Her heart raced more for the safety of the people than from the adrenaline as she jumped across to the next building.

 

 

\------------------

 

 

The man had traced her, all this way, to this third rate city of the East. A pale comparison, calling it "The Paris of the East, the New York of the West," this hovel. The search was quite arduous, she had stayed hidden for so long. Long enough that generations had passed and all had forgotten the name _Ladybug_. At long last, she had made her way into the public eye through heroics, saving a flood of factory workers from a collapsed building. The news of the events was on the front page of the North China Daily. Her emblem mentioned once and her persons discussed for a mere two sentences in the article, but it was enough. He knew at long last his search was at an end. At long last he could complete what generations of Hawkmoths never could.

 

A previous generation had captured the illusive ring, hidden somewhere trustworthy, and now, at merely the age of fifteen, he would finally capture the final Miraculous Stone. Hawkmoth smirked in content and controlled excitement. Although his tight fisted hands suggested otherwise.

 

He raised his head to stare at the rope dangling by him. He gripped the coils in order to slap open the sliding roof with a swing of his hand. He could feel the calling of the dark growing in the air. The Butterflies around him fluttered, he thought in equal excitement, but, in truth, who really knew what the small creatures of light thought.

 

"Come, my sweet Butterfly," he cooed to the one nearest. As if he might whisper it sweet nothings and offer it treats. As if darkness were not the horrid thing he was planning to offer.

 

The fluttering white butterfly obeyed and came to his opened palm. Whether by choice, one can never know, for the Butterflies were a thing of their own mind that followed neither good nor evil. Hence why generations of kwami have fought to keep them safe or vice versa in Hawkmoth's case.

 

"It is time for you to introduce yourself to this new Ladybug." He cupped the Butterfly in both hands and a thickness of purple and black pulled from the air. The miasma of impurity seeped into the butterfly's beautiful paleness like a plague.

 

"Go!" Hawkmoth ordered when the Butterfly was fully drenched in darkness. "Find the one who offered his evil and do his bidding, so that he may fulfill mine." He chuckled, a slight one he allowed to escape, but quickly clamped down on his elation. He must always show control, always _be_ in control in order to fulfill his destiny.

 

He stepped into the light as he watched his faithful servant leave. The black of his hair appeared in the light, even darker than the Butterfly's stain. Yet, his skin as pale as the moon shining down on his face, a boy come home to his blood roots, but his heart and soul in the West with all his teachings and business. Despite this, Hawkmoth always had found it ironic that his Miraculous transformation was that of his homeland. Even though he preferred tight fitted suits and vests to the airiness of Chinese clothing with its straight mandarin collar.

 

It would suffice, for now.

 

\---------------------

 

Shanghai Club

 

The boy was small despite being eighteen years old. As the son of a rich, French designer he had seen it all. Every country, every city, every bacchanal allowed to him, and every girl, the beauty of beauties, he had seen them all like they were an everyday occurrence. Yet, he had _never_ seen a girl like her. Her dress was tight, tighter than even the fashion of today's China girls. She was bold emblazoned with all that red and black like some warrior...but...also, like some kind of ladybug. Small but fearless.

 

His eyes glittered with excitement, trying to hide his love at first sight, which his blush gave away. He was instantly enamored with the girl, this ladybug. His Ladybug.

 

And, he felt a sensation he had never known before: he did not feel worthy for her. The little Jean Sarcelle, one of the richest guys around, with power in all reaches because of his father's wealth and influence, wasn't good enough for His Ladybug. He needed power of his own, abilities of his own, in order to help her, in order to fight by her side. He knew it was not good enough just to love her and to admire her and give her anything she desired. He knew he would need to be by her side regardless of the enemy--

 

Who was ripping out a bolted down piece of furniture and flinging it across the air--directly at him. Because he was right behind her.

 

Jean froze and sat there, hiding behind a chair, with a blank head and a scream trapped in his throat. The only thing he could think to do was close his eyes.

 

"Ni lo xia xia biel!" Jean could not recognize the Chinese. He had always been taught Mandarin, but Ladybug was from Shanghai, a Shanghai girl through and through. She spoke the accent she had known all her life and said, you're crazy! Before she flung out her yoyo to catch the table and pulled as hard as she could.

 

She was just in time. The table's foot was mere millimeters away from crushing Jean Sarcelle's face, his beautiful, beautiful face. Even she noticed how handsome he was, but she had no time to admire. As soon as she was done redirecting the table with her yoyo, the akuma was ready with another piece of furniture to fling. Ladybug had to get Jean Sarcelle out.

 

She rushed up to Jean, apologized in her odd dialect of Chinese, and picked him up with ease. Jean felt none of the mortifications about being lifted so easily by a girl. He was head over heels, and over the moon, because of the fact that this rare beauty was anywhere near him, let alone touching him. Ladybug noticed he smelled nice but had no time for further admiration herself, even though Ming-Na wanted desperately to, her inner self screaming.

 

She threw her yoyo with as much force as she could so that the end could break through the glass window. As soon as she had recoiled her weapon, she barreled through with Jean over her shoulder.

 

"Hup!" was the noise she made as she jumped out. While Jean screamed like a maiden in distress upon seeing the scenery flash by him so fast. Before he knew it, the world stopped moving and he was placed carefully on concrete. He sat there blankly and blinked up at his angel a few times before he tried to say anything coherent.

 

"I--"

 

She stopped him. "There!" she ordered, in very bad English, even if it only was a single word.

 

He looked at her with a frown and wide eyes, unsure what she meant.

 

She looked worried with those furrowed brows and moved her open hands about like she was struggling with something. She didn't want to just leave him there, but she had to take care of the akuma. She said no more, her English very bad, and started to run back into the building.

 

"Wait!" Jean pleaded. He was already up on his feet when Ladybug turned around. He started to walk towards her with his hand, shaking, stretched out for her.

 

She freaked, "No!" she yelled. Like he was a dog who had done something wrong, and when she saw his reaction, the metaphor was pretty accurate. He looked like she had just kicked his puppy. She frowned, panicked, looked up at the window, saw no activity, and ran back towards him again.

 

"No!" she motioned for him to stay. "I fight. Only I," she tried.

 

He seemed to understand something as his eyes grew larger in comprehension. Yet, in reality, Jean was sad because he could not argue. There was no way, even Jean Sarcelle, could fight overpowered monsters without powers like...her's.

 

He nodded and she nodded back at him. She turned around to leave again, but he stopped her with a hand gripped on her own. She stopped and looked at the hand. Jean squeezed as if to remember the exact imprint of her slender fingers then slowly, but surely, pulled her knuckles to his lips. As Ming-Na she would have blushed, but Ladybug...

 

She stopped him half an inch away with her other finger pushed into his forehead. He pulled back and looked at her, confused. He rubbed the spot where she touched, like it burned and the heat was reaching his cheeks.

 

She waved a finger at him, her signal for 'no.' Yet, she gave him a sweet smile and a quick peck on the forehead where his hand was still rubbing and said, "Bye bye!" Her yoyo was hurled into the sky until it reached a crevice. She flew off into the night. After the akuma terrorizing her city.

 

Jean's blush flooded up to his ears and he fell over backwards. He felt none of the pain as he normally would have from a fall like that. Pink filtered love filled all his sensory muscles with warmth. He smiled as he watched her journey through the night until she was out of sight.

 

He heard noise grow all around him as she departed farther and father away.

 

Then heard, "My word! That must have been Ladybug! Is she here to stop that fiend, I wonder?"

 

Jean sat straight up instantly and up onto his feet. He looked around but it was hard to find the source of the voice when Europeans were everywhere at an exclusive white male-only club. But he eventually found him. The voice came from a stuffy old man with all the trappings of a British gent of their time.

 

He rushed up to him and asked, "You know her?"

 

"My boy, we all know her. Anyone who's been in Shanghai for the month. Why, that's the famous Ladybug! Miraculous, isn't she?"

 

"Miraculeux..." Jean whispered in French, the word flowing off his tongue like the sweetness of Ladybug's kiss. "Yes, she is."

 

Jean then proceeded to bombard the man with any and all questions about this _Ladybug_ ; from that night until the morn the next day.


	2. Shanghai Lady

Meanwhile...

“Rawr!!” the akuma screamed as he thrashed at her. He was a giant of a monster, like some ogre in appearance and in strength.

Yet, he was intelligent enough to keep away from her yoyo attacks. Ladybug was starting to feel the frustration.

“You think you can stop me! I’ll show those Westerners who’s allowed in their clubs!”

She tried another tactic and ran as fast as she could behind him. He was just slow enough and distracted by his own speech that she had enough time to tangle her yoyo around his ankles. 

“These men think they can just enter Shanghai and suddenly own everything!”

It took quite a few coils before she had enough to pull on but his rant stopped. He fell over as expected.

He roared once more just before he recovered to a stand.

Ladybug smiled contentedly, proud of the work she had done. She still needed her Lucky Charm in order to clean up the mess the akuma had left in its wake. So, she yelled the enchantment words to summon Tikki’s powers from the yoyo and tossed the object with a flair. “Lucky Charm!” A large sheet of red with polka-dots floated down from where the yoyo had been tossed and she felt the coarse plush of cotton as the sheet landed in her open palms. “A sheet?” she mumbled in Shanghainese. “What am I to do with a small bit of blanket?”

Ladybug had little idea what she was meant to do with the Charm so she just ignored it as she tied it around her waist then shrugged her shoulders. The ogre had yet to move from his fall so all that was left was to purify the Butterfly. She sauntered over to the beast, expecting to be able to grab the ring that contained the nasty Butterfly that had turned the poor man. She was halfway towards his hand when he gripped her wrist.

She made a surprised noise and then a scream as she was tossed through the air. She felt the splitting pain as she crashed into the column of a building’s entrance.

“Aaahhhiiiii,” she moaned. Weakly but surely she rose from where she fell, cradling her back with her hands and massaging the area. She was just in time to look out and find the ogre coming for her. She bounded out of the way just before he crashed into the structure. He smiled as he destroyed the marble and plaster into dust.

He liked destruction did he?

She formulated an idea and began implementing her plan with the next building over. 

She whistled towards the ogre and he looked over as she expected. Ladybug untied the sheet from her waist and snapped it to one side. Then, like the Matadors her Father had explained to her from one of his trips, she used both hands to hold up the red blanket to her side and waved it tauntingly at the beast.

He had little idea why she was doing such a thing, but he saw no reason not to charge regardless. He smiled and said in Shanghainese, “You want to join the other Westerners and crumble? Be my guest!”

Ladybug waved the attraction even harder and he took the taunt. He started to charge.

Ladybug stood her ground, unafraid, unmoving besides the smiling growing and the taunt she waved. He ran at her, head first, then faster…and faster…faster still….

He was practically on top of her and still she waited. The few crazy tourists or citizens that stayed to watch thought her crazy, on the brink of insanity and death. They caught their breaths, one even screamed for Ladybug to save herself.

She took a breath then jumped cleanly away. The red was replaced with a cold and dark statue of a guardian beast. The ogre panicked for a split second before he knew he would be safe. He crashed into the statue but felt a shooting pain in his temple before the rest of his body followed. He felt like his skull had collapsed inside. The statue remained unharmed.

“There’s only so much you can fight against, even a beast can’t break iron and steel,” Ladybug said proudly, but the ogre was no longer conscious to hear it.

She walked over to him, grabbed the ring from his limp fingers, and crushed the piece in her hand. She didn’t know how, but even though this was her first time dealing with an akuma she knew exactly what to do to purify the Butterfly. She caught the fluttering creature in her yoyo and used it to clean the blackness from it.

"Gotcha! Bye bye, my pretty Butterfly," she said as it fluttered away.

Once it was pure and free she whispered it sweet nothings before restoring her city to its dual beauty, both the Eastern and Western sides.

"Miraculous Ladybug!" she yelled, as she tossed her Lucky Charm into the air, it's magic working to restore her city.

She smiled happily at the work the little charms were doing but was startled when she heard a moan near her.

“Ahh…what happened?” the well-dressed man that was previously an akuma complained. He cradled his head in his palm and blinked furiously until he found his bearings.

Ladybug knelt next to him with a genuine smile, reaching her from dimple to dimple.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Ladybug? How?”

“I think we’ve all had bad days because Shanghai is overrun with so many people. We especially clash when we can't agree.” She wanted no nonsense and got straight to the point. No reason to make small talk after just spending hours battling each other. Even though he may not remember any of it. She extended out a hand. He took it and they both stood.

“I…I just want Shanghai to make progress for her people as much as for the foreigners making those changes,” he started, then looked down sadly as he continued, “But how can she when Westerners keep building and building in the name of progress and yet never allow the people of Shanghai through her doors.”

“You mean the Shanghai Club?”

He nodded. “There are so many clubs and establishments that only allow white men or people from the West inside. I am a proud business man, one of the best in Shanghai, and yet I am barred from eating at an establishment because I am a Chinaman,” he said the last part sarcastically, derisive. 

It was a similar complaint Ming-Na had heard her own Father voice. Shanghai was slowly loosing herself in a shadow of the West.

“But you’re a business man yourself. Why don’t you just build your Shanghai?”

“Build my own what?”

“Yeah! Why not? If the city is loosing herself to the West, why not progress as we want her to ourselves? There’s no reason you couldn’t start your own club or hotel?”

“Oh…but the cost…” he started. “But wait…I have heard of Shanghai’s rise in the cinema. Maybe we could start by reclaiming our visual representation.

“Exactly!”

“Oh! Thank you, Ladybug! Thank you! I can do something for our city and I have you to thank for that. Luo Chang-Lu never forgets a debt!”

Ladybug smiled one of her famous smiles but heard her earrings beeping weakly.

“Maybe I could star you in one of the films I’ll fund?"

“Oh! That would be very nice, but I must be leaving! Still all of the city to guard!”

She then flung her yoyo into the air and once it was taut she flew away into the night. Half hoping if she returned to the Shanghai Club she might catch one more glimpse of the man she had saved from the akuma. The one with glittering, bright blonde hair and even more brilliant green eyes. She wished she had caught his name...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is all I managed to write. I'll keep going if there is enough interest in the story, since I'm a history buff and I don't like doing anything halfway so I would need to research much more about the time period to feel confident enough to write more. I'll try if you guys like. Either way, enjoy what is here!


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